Carolina chamber of commerce and next tar media, the u. S. Senate race, South Carolina. A live candidate conversation. Media nextstar media we are coming to you live from spartanburg, South Carolina. And tonights conversation will be live streamed and will be livestreamed and broadcast across the carolinas, as well as on our partner station, in columbia. Many of you tuned in this evening to watch the candidates for u. S. Senate in their second debate. Both campaigns agree to the four net of that debate. But this week, Campaign StafferJamie Harrison asked that the incumbent senator be tested for covid. The senator was tested last friday. In a Statement Released yesterday afternoon, the Harrison Campaign wrote, i cannot responsibly debate in person tomorrow night and allow politics to put my family, my campaign staff, and members of the media at unnecessary risk. The Graham Campaign responded, mr. Harrison is demanding special treatment. If mr. Harrison is not able to interact with south carolinians on the same terms they live their lives, he should not be there senator. Because of this impasse, we have changed the format of the form tonight. At the bottom of the hour, Lindsey Graham will face the same panel with equal time directly following mr. Harrisons interview. We have taken steps to provide a safe environment here tonight. This environment has been sanitized and the candidates and our panel are separated at a safe distance. Lets meet our panel. Anchor Carolyn Murray and anchor gordon dale. Gordon will ask her first question. Gordon amy, thank you. Mr. Harrison, i want to talk about the covid production data for cautions. Last week you brought your own plexiglas shield with the. If you are insisting the person that you are debating have a test, what is the purpose of a the plexiglas, is that a prop . No, its being safe. Right now, senator graham was in a room with two people who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Two senators who are now quarantined at home. We have to take this thing seriously. The president of the United States has been out of pocket because he has the coronavirus. When you take a look at this, senator graham said that folks want special treatment. Nobody is asking for special treatment. We are asking for a senior senator to take this seriously. He has gone to offense and he hasnt worn a mask. He sat on the white house lawn with 1000 people, mask less. What im saying is, as someone who has a preexisting condition, i dont know the conditions of all of you and your staff. We need our leaders to actually lead by example. Take a look at this. After the president announced that he has the coronavirus, weve had several debates across this country since then. Vice president pence took a coronavirus test. Senator cornyn just today took a coronavirus test. Suzanne collins took a coronavirus test. They are being responsible because they were in meetings in which folks have had the coronavirus. I dont understand why senator graham is asking for special treatment. Lets keep people safe. Its a fiveminute test. You go in, you get a swab, its less than 30 minutes and you get an answer. Gordon gordon but mr. Harrison, you are asking to represent millions of south carolinians. You dont know their condition either. 150,000 of them with confirmed cases of covid. Will you not meet with them . Ms. Harrison listen, this is the difference. Senator graham and i are vying to be leaders in the state. We are also asking people to wear masks. Senator graham doesnt do that. This is real stuff. 3500 south carolinians have lost their lives. 150,000 have been infected. One who lost their life was my aunt gladys who died alone in a nursing home. This is impacting families and away we have never seen in our lives. What we needed somebody to be serious about this. 750,000 south carolinians have lost their job. 400,000 of them lost their health care. All we are asking is for one of the top leaders in the state to lead by example. Dont hold rallies without a mask. Make sure that you are washing your hands. Where you are in a form with forum interacting with folks, after you have been in a room with two people who contracted the coronavirus, you get a test. Thats all we are asking. It doesnt take a lot to do that. I dont understand why his colleagues can do it, the Vice President can do it, he things he is special enough that he cant. Gordon thank you. Carolyn continuing with the same conversation, talking about covid19. Senator graham has presented us with a doctors note indicating that hes not necessarily needing to be tested. This is the same dr. Who would octor who would take care of you if you are elected. Do you believe that that doctors note is sufficient . Ms. Harrison well, im not sure. I do know that dr. Fauci said yesterday that the white house event that started this all was a super spreader event. We all have to take this stuff seriously. I dont believe that our senator has. Very early on, he was in those rooms. We all heard bob woodward talk about the president and what he said in terms of how they tried to talk down the coronavirus initially. Senator graham helped set up the interviews. He was in the room. I remember the interviews in which he tried to talk this down as well. He said, if 50,000 people die, thats a success. Then 75,000. Then 100,000. This is something that is impacting so many people. It breaks my heart to hear the stories of folks saying that they cant properly say goodbye to loved ones because they cant hold their hand. They cant be in the emergency room when their loved one is passing away. Its important that we take this stuff seriously. It is impacting us as a society in a way that we have never seen before. Sorry for your loss. I appreciate you sharing that with us. Another question about the National Mask mandate. The white house is now described as a hotspot. We know that dozens of People Associated with the Trump Campaign have tested positive for covid19. Many of those people were seen at large gatherings not wearing masks. The question for you is do you believe there should be a National Mask mandate. Ms. Harrison i do. Mitch mcconnell believes the same thing. He said that he wont go to the white house because they have different standards as it relates to the coronavirus. We have to take this seriously. When we look at other nations. New zealand is the perfect example. Nations who are almost coronavirus free at this point in time. They came up with a National Plan for how they were going to address this. Instead of saying, each state is different. We dont have walls on the borders of our states. People get on airplanes. My inlaws living in utah, i live in South Carolina. Its easy for us to fly there. If i took the coronavirus with me, im impacting the people in the plane. Im impacting the people in the location im going. Those people impact other folks. There are no walls on the borders of each of our United States. We have to come up with a comprehensive plan in order to address this. We failed to do that. Carolyn thank you. Gordon so, given how serious covid is, students all over the country have to show immunization records to return the class. If theres a covid19 vaccine, should they be required to have that to return to class . Ms. Harrison thats a possibility. We have to look at that. Its really important. Its part of the reason why we do contact tracing. Its part of the reason why we have to be thoughtful in the process to make sure that nobody is impacted and infected by something we are still learning so much about. Its in our best interest for us to take this as seriously as we possibly can so that we can get back to normal. If we continue to try to be lax with how we deal with this issue, we are going to lag behind all of these other nations that have taken positive steps forward to get the coronavirus behind them instead of in front of them. Gordon so, you would consider a National Mandate for schoolchildren to get the vaccine . Ms. Harrison just like we ask for kids to have flu shots, we would probably have to think about the same thing. Gordon what about the people who are concerned about the safety of the vaccine . Ms. Harrison at this point, we need the scientists and not politicians if you ask me if this is a good vaccine, i would tell you, dont ask me. Ask someone who understands this stuff. In terms of doctors and scientists. If dr. Fauci, who i believe folks on all sides of the aisle and in the middle, if he says this is a reliable vaccine, something that we have tested, something that has gone through the processes that we usually have for these types of things, and we feel that its good for the american people, i will take it. Im not going to take it if Lindsey Graham is telling me that. Again senator graham and i arent doctors. We need to rely upon them to give us the best advice. Gordon all right, thank you. Carolyn . Carolyn mr. Harrison, africanamericans represent 27 of South Carolinas population. Of the 3500 people who died in our state, 35 of those people were black. What will you do to ensure access to medical care and health care for all people in our state . Ms. Harrison yeah. You know what the coronavirus did . It exacerbated problems that were already here. I remember hearing about the coronavirus and cringing. I knew the impact that it would have here in South Carolina, particularly on the most vulnerable communities. We live in a state were almost 250,000 people dont have access to health care. We are one of 12 states that have refused to expand medicaid. 38 other states have expanded medicaid under the Affordable Care act. South carolina has failed to do so. Four of our hospitals in the state have closed. We are seeing that site in type of trend. That same type of trend in other states that refused to expand medicaid. If you live in one of those communities, it doesnt matter if you are black or white, and you have complications with diabetes or are impacted by the coronavirus or have come locations with a pregnancy, instead of taking you 15 minutes like it used to to get to the nearest hospital, and it takes you 25 or 45 minutes. Thats a death sentence. Those folks are not looking for a democratic solution or a republican solution. They just are looking for a solution. We have a responsibility to the people here in South Carolina. The leadership. Lindsey graham is emblematic of it. Hes been here 25 years and failed to do so. Ive gone to some of these communities. Theyve told me that Lindsey Graham has not shown up. We can do better, particularly on health. Two years ago, 14 of our 46 counties had no ob gyn. None. Zero. Zip. We are in the 21st century. 14 counties in South Carolina dont have any ob gyns . And we are serious about health care . We have a senator who comes up with a Health Care Plan that he thought of in a barbershop. Where he doesnt protect folks with preexisting conditions. He puts a senior tax on seniors. He blocked money. Lets be serious about health care. It doesnt have to be a partisan thing. Lets be focused on the health of every single south carolinian. Thats what im going to do. Im going to fight to expand medicaid. I will fight to strengthen the Affordable Care act so that every person can have health care, whether its given to them by their employer or because they go into some type of public option. Carolyn mr. Harrison, i would also like to talk to you about the stimulus relief package. This week, negotiations broke down to provide a second round of relief to families and businesses affected by covid19. Now that the first round has expired, people are losing their jobs. They are losing health care. They are losing businesses. How would you work beyond the aisle, across the aisle and foster bipartisan support to pass something to help not only the nations families, but families right here in your community of South Carolina . Ms. Harrison thank you for that question. It breaks my heart to talk to Small Business owners and folks who are on unemployment right now and desperately needed that federal unappointed benefit. Again, i said 750,000 south carolinians lost their job as a result of this coronavirus. Many of them lost their health care as well. Our senator said, over his dead body would he allow an extension of the unappointed benefit. As a result, because the benefit ran out in august, there is so many folks who are on the verge of being kicked out of their homes. They are on the verge of not being able to pay their bills. Our senator is so out of touch. He didnt understand why it was important to continue that benefit. That brought 20 million into the South Carolina economy every week. Every week. Not only did it benefit the families, it also benefited the Small Businesses that are on the verge of closing. South carolina, i dont know if folks know this, is ranked 50th in the nation as it relates to ppp dollars per worker. 49 other states are getting more money for their Small Businesses to stay open then South Carolina did. For me, at the end of the day, this is about what we can do to improve the state. Not about washington policies. I will work with anybody who is looking forward to trying to build progress. That means staying in session. Lindsey graham and the senate when out of session for vacation in august. We need to stay in session and get it done. I wish the senator would take the urgency he has for the Supreme Court nomination, to put that into doing a bill to address the needs of the folks in South Carolina. Carolyn thank you. Gordon . Gordon convenient, mr. Harrison, that you mentioned the Supreme Court. That is our next topic. I know you want to talk about the process of confirmation. Before you do that, is Amy Coney Barrett qualified to serve as a justice on the u. S. Up in court . She was qualified to be, in terms of the district court. So i would need to ask her some questions to find out where she stands on certain issues. Particularly in terms of the civil rights that have been gained in this country for so many groups. Hopefully, those questions will be asked of her and her confirmation hearings. We should not be talking about confirmation hearings right now. Lindsey graham said, it use my words against me. We should not be considering a justice in the fourth year, in an Election Year and that he would not vote for such a justice. I learned, many of us learned in South Carolina, a manager women are only as good as their work. What is the word of Lindsey Graham worth . Gordon what is your position . Do you have a rule you follow of when it is and is not appropriate to confirm amount nomination . Ms. Harrison my room is the precedent and standards of the United States senate. In 2016, the rule was that whenever a president nominates, it should be considered. Lindsey graham and others change that rule and set a new president. Now hes going against his word. In essence, this is a new precedent. I will follow it. If we will be a nation of laws and rules, we have to follow those rules. I said the other night, it feels like im playing monopoly with my sixyearold son. You change the rules to benefit you. Thats not the way this country needs to run. I will always follow the rules. People will always know. Even if they dont agree with me, they will know that i will tell them the truth. I will not waffle one way or the other. I will tell them the truth. Gordon , i want to talk about criminal justice. I want to read something you posted on twitter. Just as slavery was ended, we can end the epidemic of Police Brutality and root out the systemic racism that oppresses communities of color across South Carolina. Are you saying Police Brutality is as pervasive in the south as slavery once was . If you are suggesting a legislative solution, exactly what is it . Ms. Harrison let me tell you, i grew up in orangeburg. One of the very first stories that i heard, i started learning more about the Civil Rights Movement and what went on in my hometown, about the orangeburg massacre. Three College Students who were protesting a segregated bowling alley, a bunch of other kids on the campuses were protesting because they wanted to desegregate that bowling alley. They went marching. Three of those students lost their lives that night. None of them had guns or weapons. They were marching for equality. They were killed by members of Law Enforcement. Those members of Law Enforcement actually went to trial. Nobody went to jail. Nobody did. Imagine growing up in a community where that is the legacy. Imagine being an africanamerican man who has heard all his life of the Horror Stories about how folks have been brutalized and beaten and how the criminal Justice System hasnt been fair. Thats not just. Thats the reality of so many people in the state. This is that saying that all police are bad . No. My grandpa ron on my stepdads side had been in the police force over 30 years. Ive talked to him. We all